CIOInsight's survey of 45 emerging technologies finds team collaboration tools, business process platforms/management suites, server virtualization, and open source databases, development tools and languages are considered "most likely to pro

CIO Insight has surveyed IT executives on emerging technologies since 2003. This year's survey covers 45 emerging technologies in five different categories. Some, such as Web services, open source, VoIP, collaboration tools and, more recently, virtualization and SOA, are being widely and quickly adopted, while others, such as grid computing, have been slow to emerge. Why do some technologiesnot just grid, but also utility computing, self-healing/autonomic computing, Semantic Web and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) take so long?

One reason is conversion costs and technical limitations. Grids which link separate computers into a virtual parallel-processing computer so they can tackle computing tasks that require enormous processing power and speedhave been deployed by Charles Schwab & Co. for portfolio analysis, and by GlaxoSmithKline plc for drug discovery. According to Carl Claunch, a research vice president for Gartner Inc., grids are appropriate on high-payoff projects that require a lot of computing muscle, such as oil exploration and automobile or aircraft design.

Allan Alter has been a specialist on information technology management, strategy and leadership for many years. Most recently, he was editor-in-chief and the director of new content development for the MIT Sloan Management Review. He has been a columnist and department editor at Computerworld, where he won three awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. Previously he was a special projects editor, senior editor and senior writer for CIO magazine. Earlier, Alter was an associate editor for Mass High Tech. He has edited two books: The Squandered Computer: Evaluating the Business Alignment of Business Technologies and Redesigning the Firm.